Posts Tagged ‘teleggio pizza recipe’

I love eggs, but in my busy schedule I’d neglected to post one of my successful and non-conformist pizzas that I made in April. It was an ode to spring with those little orbs of life that bring so much flavor to a great pizza. Let me tell you how this delicious monster was constructed!

I decided to make a long schiacciata of naturally leavened, high-protein dough made with Manitoba wheat, then made a mozzarella egg, (Just like the one I posted earlier) chicken skin bacon, Osetra and salmon caviar with Teleggio cheese and sweet, pungent spring ramp leaves. I then topped it in Sardinian fashion with grated Bottarga di Muggine; the dried egg sack from the grey mullet. It was once known as the poor mans caviar and has that wonderful whip-crack of umami you get with salty caviar and is particularly delightful on wheat, either pasta or, in this case, a pizza.

This is the time for all you pizza bloggers, purists and know-it-all “seafood doesn’t belong on pizza” scumbags to just go away. I love seafood on pizza and with cheese. Life is good, you are haters and no one likes you. Ha!

It took a lot of strength to hold myself back from dipping into the caviar while taking this picture.

I bake off hundreds of pounds of local, King Family Farm chicken each week at Avalanche Pizza Bakers and subsequently have a lot of chicken skin on hand. To make the chicken skin bacon, pre-heat an oven to 475. Take the cooked chicken skin off making sure to get as big a piece as possible, season with paprika, Chinese five spice powder, garlic powder, coloratura (Sicilian garum or Thai fish sauce), fine pepper and a little salt to taste. Adding a little teriyaki will produce a very nice char on the skin, just be careful not to overcook. Put the seasoned skin on a parchment lined tray and place another sheet of parchment on top of the skin, then weigh down with another similar tray and place two to three aluminum foil bricks on top. I have many trays in my pizzeria and just pile four trays on top. Cook in the oven for only 8 to 12 minutes. Keep taking a peek so as not to burn it. When nicely “baconized”, cut with scissors to resemble bacon.

Now for the Mozzarella egg. Pre-heat the oven to 475, (or do this while the chicken skin bacon is cooking) Using fresh mozzarella from a log instead of mozzarella in brine, cut several pieces and overlap on parchment pressing down to form an oval the size of a Hobbits hand. Quickly heat up the mozzarella and press again once hot. When just melted, push an indent into the lower middle, crack and egg and place the yolk in the indent. Using a spatula, pull the top over the bottom and lightly press down to shut. Let cool and judge just how much it looks like a cooked egg! Or see just how much you have screwed it up and try again.

Using a 20 ounce dough ball, bang out an oval. This may take some time but let the dough proof in between pulling. You will get there eventually. Place the Teleggio and chopped ramps on the dough and place in a 550 degree oven. If you are doing this at home, try to get your oven up to 500 with either a pizza stone or a preheated, upturned, heavy cookie sheet on the middle rack. Use parchment to transfer the pizza to the sheet pan.

Cook for 12 to 14 minutes until cooked. Take out of the oven and place the cooled mozzarella eggs on the schiacciata. Put this back in the oven for two to three minutes. DO NOT COOK THIS TOO LONG OR THE MOZZARELLA WILL SLIDE OFF THE YOLK!

When the mozzarella egg has sufficiently warmed and the pizza is cooked, place the chicken skin bacon, caviar and microplane the Bottarga on the pizza…

…cut into the mozza egg and have an ooze-tastic taste of eggsistential delight.

My introduction to Arso Nero, or Black Ash flour all started when I met Chef Antonio Esposito and Alberto Busi of Pivetti flour at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas four years ago. They were cutting up dough balls for a demonstration of Neapolitan pizza and I had just finished preparing for a bread demo.

“Hey Guys, need some help?” I said overly friendly-like.

“Ahhh, no.” Antonio said smiling.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, we are sure, but we can let you stand there and watch us for no extra charge.” Alberto said. They both laughed sadistically and I instantly liked them. I stood there for the next 20 minutes (more to annoy than anything), asking question after question about their flour, dough, hydration, mixing etc and they were some of the most knowledgeable and friendly Pizza guys around.

This year I was lucky enough to meet up with them again in Las Vegas and in Columbus Ohio at the awesome RDP Foodservice show. They showed me their new product called “Skura” (by Pivetti). They were cooking pizzas and breads in my all time favorite pizza makers mobile oven from GoreMade Pizza, owned and operated by fellow Ohioan and outstanding pizza maniac Nick Gore. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with this dough. Nicks oven was just over 800 degrees because he had just set up but still this great dough stood out. It had the same oven spring as a typical “00” flour and charred nicely on the bottom leaving some killer leoparding, (spots) but the distinguishing characteristics were the juxtaposed qualities of a nice light, airy cell structure and a deep, smoky, back-of-the-throat finish.

Chef Antonio Espisito at work and with Pizza Legend Bruno di Fabio at the exciting RDP Foodservice show in Columbus.

Out of the ashes: The low down on Arso Nero:

In 18th century Puglia, Italy, wheat was first harvested then the fields were burnt to the soil for next years fertilizer. After the burning, the peasants would scour the fields and pick up the arso, or charred wheat berries left behind. They ground them up with semolina to make grano arso or “ash flour” then baked them in bread that produced a toasted flavor. Pivetti has successfully replicated this famed flour by slow-roasting the wheat for the same grey-black appeal.

Check out the beautiful charred flecks of wheat floating all around the gluten net of my windowpane test, (above).

After repeated begging Chef Antonio sent me a bag of this glorious product and I went to work. I mixed it the way I would any of my high-heat, Naples-style pizzas; with just the dough, salt and water with a little pre-ferment from the Dolomite Mountains. I then aged it for 30 hours under refrigeration. I just couldn’t wait to stoke my oven up to ultra-high heat and blast some pizza!

Here are some pies I made with Arso Nero flour.

First pizza was a San Marzano sauce with fresh spinach, thin slices of my homemade Red Wattle guanciale, pignoli, and some glorious Puglian buratta. Then I made a Teleggio and Portobello pizza with white truffle oil and balsamic.

I used some aged Piave Vecchio I had and paired it with a ballistic three-year old Brugge Prestige, roasted fingerling and leek then topped with Prosciutto di Parma. For a really awesome worldly pizza, I topped the Arso Nero dough with aged provolone, curry roasted onion and cauliflower, raison, spinach and finished with fresh cilantro and Calabrian Chilies! Wow, not that’s the BOMBE!

Here’s the action packed video from my wrecked phone, (fell into some poolish a while back).

I finally wanted to bake an ash-flour pizza with a truly Roman flavor profile of anchovy, tomato and garlic. I used salt-cured Sicilian as well as white anchovies as well as some sliced garlic and San Marzano sauce.

All I can say now is that these pizza really rock! Thank you Pivetti and Antonio and Alberto! Now I am going to try to replicate this dough with charred speltberries. (More on that later).